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Nature Physics 4, 678–679 (1 September 2008) | doi:10.1038/nphys1065

Coherent population trapping: Quantum optics with dots

Manfred Bayer

Quantum dots are small semiconductor islands of nanometre size and are formed by tens to hundreds of thousands of atoms. Although this 'atomic background' represents a complex potential landscape to a conduction electron injected into a quantum dot, its behaviour can be described quite well by a simple particle-in-box model.